75 years of the Oscars

And the award for silliest ceremony goes to ... Rob Lowing reflects on Nazis, nepotism and knickerless nominees.

When the Oscars are handed out today (Sydney time) it will be the culmination of 75 years of artistic history. And 75 years of backstabbing, pay-offs and sentimental choices.

Let's not forget the substance-fuelled bloopers, the nudity and the bizarre fashion choices.

Hopefully, some - if not all - of the above will appear in the Academy Awards telecast.

But if the movie industry suddenly develops good taste, here's a handy guide to the most embarrassing moments in Oscars history.

"Will you accept 300 per week to work for Paramount Pictures? Three hundred is peanuts. Millions are to be made out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around" - Herman Mankiewicz's 1926 telegram to fellow writer Ben Hecht.");document.write("

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In 1927, MGM studio head Louis B.Mayer wasn't concerned with artistic merit. What he wanted was an organisation of Hollywood's biggest names, hand-picked by him, to freeze out fledgling, obstreperous workers' unions.

Membership of Mayer's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was by invitation only. The studio boss funded the first dinner, helped draft the constitution and selected the five-person nominating committee.

Four months later, Mayer asked the academy to recommend to its members that all studio workers take a 10 per cent pay cut.

In other ill omens, best-actor winner Emil Jannings collected his award at the 1929 ceremony and promptly retreated to Germany to become a Nazi-approved star.

The Jazz Singer, hailed as the first "talkie", was excluded - for being too newfangled. The silent movie Wings won instead.

"The Oscar is a cruel joke hatched up by a cruel town and handed out in a cruel ceremony" - Marion Davies, actor.

By 1935, the academy had named its statuette.

One legend has a secretary naming it after her uncle. The other, that winner Bette Davis said it reminded her of the backside of her first husband, band leader Oscar Nelson.

Behind the scenes, though, the academy was so discredited that membership was down to 17, according to its president, Frank Capra.

Faith was not restored by photographs of award winner Norma Shearer, actor-wife of MGM head Irving Thalberg, holding her award - two days before the 1930 ceremony.

Stars and directors deserted in favour of their own guilds; a boycott loomed.

A desperate Capra used a sentimental stand-by: giving a special achievements award. The recipient was D.W.Griffith, director of Birth Of A Nation. In reality, the "father of the movies" had been ignored and unemployed by Hollywood for a decade.

Capra also convinced the committee to broaden the membership. Sealed envelopes were finally introduced in 1941.

World War II proved a boon for American movies and the academy. The five major studios (Paramount, Warner, MGM, Fox and RKO) tapped into the patriotic spirit.

The "big five" now saw the publicity value of funding a ceremony and donated the equivalent of $A250,000 in 1947.

But they expected a return, especially when the 1800 academy members showed an appalling preference for British, French and Italian movies.

In 1948, Hamlet won best picture and irate Hollywood studio bosses withdrew their funding.

The academy's only function was film preservation and its only asset an ability to attract stars once a year. It turned to the monster that threatened movies' existence: television. The Academy Awards were televised and earned the largest audience yet for the five-year-old medium.

"I can't deny the fact that you like me! You like me! You like me - right now, you like me!" - Sally Field, actor.

By the late 1980s, the academy's ceremony was the movie world's top contest but it was hardly representative. The book Oscar Dearest by Peter Brown and Jim Pinkston estimated that Hollywood had a core of 40,000 actors and other craftspeople. Yet the academy membership was one-tenth of that.

Membership was by invitation only, needing two academy sponsors and approval by the board of governors and the nominee's craft guild.

Not all members voted. Estimates range from 40 per cent, according to former academy president Howard Koch, to 60 per cent (Los Angeles Times newspaper).

A telecast audience now estimated at 1.5 billion worldwide may be an incentive but reports still abound of forms filled in by spouses, assistants and, in one case, a producer's doctor.

"The Oscar is something to be feared...the town takes it too seriously, tries too hard to get it" - George C.Scott, actor.

The truly shameful period in the academy's history was its collaboration with the US government's 1950s anti-communist witch-hunts.

The "black list" was a tactic used by the Nazis to control the German film industry. Now the academy demanded loyalty oaths and used the dreaded list of names published in the Red Channels booklet to deny nominations.

Brilliant writers such as Dalton Trumbo (Roman Holiday), Michael Wilson (A Place In The Sun) and Ned Young (The Defiant Ones) were forced to work under pseudonyms.

By the 1960s, America was protesting over civilrights but the academy was still voting for

My Fair Lady.

In 1968, the year of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the top gong was won by Oliver!

"Everyone in the business wants an Oscar...if they say they don't, they're probably lying" - Ingrid Bergman, actor.

In a scathing December 2002 article, The New Yorker noted "a whispering campaign" against A Beautiful Mind reportedly instigated by rivals ... or by the film's own studio.

The taint of dirty tricks never entirely leaves Oscar.

A campaign to nominate The Exorcist's Linda Blair included contractually muzzling Mercedes McCambridge from revealing that she provided the devil's voice for the 12-year-old actor.

The academy itself is not immune. A segment that featured supposedly hearing-impaired girls singing a song backfired in 1978. Thanks to the kids' inept sign language, experts busted the telecast's schmaltzy scam.

Then there was the streaker who eluded backstage security to - as 1974 host David Niven noted - "reveal his shortcomings". The streaker turned out to be a professional party performer. The network denied claims it was a stunt to boost television ratings.

"As you can see, I received and read my academy brochure on how to dress as a serious actress" - Cher.

After missing out on what she felt was a deserved win for Mask in 1985, Cher was ready to show the academy. Her navel-bearing spiderwoman gown of satin, leather and rare French hackle fowl feathers was designed to shock.

In the early years, though, Oscar was the height of nightclub chic.

During World War II, actors such as Van Heflin and Clark Gable attended in their uniforms. When Joanne Woodward accepted her All About Eve Oscar in a homemade dress, she was accused of setting back Hollywood glamour 20 years.

Female actors have learnt that a bad outfit haunts them for years. "Demi admits: she made it herself!" shrieked 1989's Women's Wear Daily after Demi Moore appeared in a strange bicycle-shorts-and-cape outfit.

As for Bjork's 2001 dead-swan outfit, Steve Martin noted: "I was going to wear my swan. But to me they're so last year".

"When I was a candidate for The Apartment, when Elizabeth Taylor got a hole in her throat I cancelled my plane" - nominee Shirley MacLaine. (Taylor won, for Butterfield 8).

In 1980, studios spent an estimated $US7.5million ($12.6million) combined on their Oscar campaigns.

In 1994, Miramax spent a reported $US900,000 alone for print advertisements touting The Piano. Estimates for recent major campaigns (Shakespeare In Love; A Beautiful Mind) now top $US12million.

The most shameless is still John Wayne's 1961 pursuit of Oscar for his Texan epic TheAlamo.

The press release was 183 pages. Hundreds of newspaper advertisements appealed to God, and told voters they were unpatriotic if they didn't support the film.

Then there are the fools for love: filmmakers who spent millions to promote their girlfriends or wives: William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies (the subjects of the movie Citizen Kane); David O.Selznick and Jennifer Jones; Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd.

"After I won the Oscar, my salary doubled, my friends tripled, my kids became more popular at school, the butcher made a pass at me and my maid asked for a raise" - Shirley Jones, actor.

In the late 1940s, Oscar added $US1.8 million to the box office for the best-picture winners.

By 1971, director William Friedkin estimated the win made his The French Connection an extra $US6million. By 1973, The Sting's producers announced an additional $US32million.

Jane Fonda was offered 40 film roles after Klute, while Julie Christie's 1965 Oscar for Darling was estimated by one UK paper to be worth $US9million to her over the next 10 years.

Kevin Spacey made news by not increasing his price.

He had made a handshake deal for K-Pax before he won for American Beauty and didn't alter the terms.